The Shenango Coke Works facility -- which produced coke, a coal-derived product, for over 50 years -- shut down in January 2016 following community activism and sizable fines for pollution, per Euronews Green.

Since then, a study from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine published in the journal Environmental Research: Health has found a 42% decrease in average weekly visits to emergency health services for heart-related illnesses, as the media organization NowThis tweeted about.

Furthermore, when looking at data from January 2016 through December 2018, the researchers discovered there were 33 fewer average annual hospitalizations for heart disease compared to the preceding three years of the coal plant's operation, corresponding to a "near-instant drop" in air pollution, as NYU Grossman School of Medicine observed. 

Among that number, the study found there were "13 fewer average yearly hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease (typically heart attack) and 12 fewer average yearly hospitalizations for cerebrovascular events (most often stroke)." 

And that's not even mentioning the impact on the air quality in the local area. As Euronews Green noted, "average daily levels of toxic sulfur dioxide fell by 90 percent at government air-monitoring stations near the plant" following the coal plant's closure.